I have bought so many dainty rings for all occasions from Aurate the past few years. They're the perfect thing to wear on those hot Sumner days where you don't want anything bulky on. I wore a bunch of my jewelry from Aurate with this slip dress on a particularly hot day recently. It added some more interest to my outfit without adding any weight. The pearl necklace in particular is light as air! I'm glad last week we finally had some cooler weather, that hot snap was crazy!

You might recognize the print on this dress. It's because I have the camisole version and wear it A LOT. I got it in December 2015 (first outfit post with it) and it slowly moved up the ranks in my closet. I bought this dress version for $7 in 2019. I don't wear it often but when I do it's always on super hot days. It doesn't cling to the skin and is nice and breezy!

Christian and I finally bought a new parking pass so we can park and walk at our favorite park every morning. They recently updated it with new walking paths, including a path that goes a little closer to this brook, perfect for photos! When I used to live with my parents and/or my cousins the parking stickers were included in our car taxes. Sadly Christian and I don't live in that town so we have to buy one, but it's worth it because we enjoy it so much. We also have access to beaches in the town we live so there are multiple options for walks and bike rides.

Dress: eight sixty V Cami Dress in "Black Crea"

Sandals: Ancient Greek Sandals 'Apteros' in Crosta Wine (bought in Athens) 

Italian Leather Bag: Bought in Venice 

Jewelry:  Aurate Toi et Moi Gemstone Mini Vintage Ring with Yellow Citrine & Purple Amethyst, Endless Pearl Station Necklace, Infinity Hoop Earrings and Stackable Twist Ring 

In Summer the last thing I want to think about is putting on heavy, clunky jewelry. Aurate carries a ton of unique gold rings, like this crossover ring, that are light as air and perfect for Summer accessorizing. I paired it with my london blue topaz ring and gemstone station necklace, also from Aurate. I think at this point half my jewelry is from them. I love that they're sustainable and really high quality. Most pieces are made to order and shipped directly to consumers so there isn't a heavy markup on pricing. Most of my pieces are gold vermeil but you can also get 14K, 18K and platinum gold pieces.

I wore this to a family bbq at my brother's this weekend. It was a perfect Summer day, not too hot, but not cold. This dress is also perfect for that weather. It's a knit fabric but super breezy. It's not quite sleeveless but the sleeves are not very long, I wouldn't even call it a cap sleeve. I've had it for over 10 years now and I feel like I wear it more and more each year. It's so easy to put on with minimal jewelry, I don't need much, just a few sparkles here and there.

I paired my look with these super fun embellished sandals from my favorite brand - Ancient Greek Sandals. I don't wear these as often as I'd like because they are quite noisy. I don't need people staring at me in the grocery store, hah! But when I know I won't be doing a lot of walking/be around strangers I have to break them out. Bonus is the name if the style is my middle name. I'm always drawn to pieces like that, see: my Chloe Faye bag. Speaking of, I need to wear it again soon. It's been too long!

Dress: LAUREN Ralph Lauren (Lord & Taylor)

Sandals: Ancient Greek Sandals 'Faye' embellished sandal (Net-a-Porter Sale)

Bag: Madewell Medium Slim Saddle Bag in Croc c/o Shopbop

Sunglasses: Chanel 5285 in dark plum butterfly (bought in Greece)

Jewelry c/o Aurate & Grandma's topaz

*This post was made in partnership with Responsival.  Thank you for supporting brands I feature*

One of my main problems with wearing flats is finding socks that don't show. The "no show" socks I currently have always cause more trouble than they're worth, they slip off my foot or parts of them still show on some of my fancier shoes. Do you ever wish you had truly invisible socks for your flats too? I was recently introduced to Flat Socks which do just that! They are like insoles for your shoes but in sock material and they're washer/dryer safe. This keeps the inside of your shoes clean and you also have sock-like protection. Their website says it all: no slip, no stink, no show and no sacrifices!

I bought a few pairs to try out, even one made of faux fur when I want to wear flats in Winter. Flat Socks come in two sizes small and large. I bought the small and was able to cut them, using their handy trim guide, to my shoe size. If your insoles come out you can also remove those and use them as a guide to get a perfect match for any pair. Et voilà! Invisible socks for any pair of shoes!

Depending on your shoes you may have to do a bit of extra fine tuning to get the invisible socks to fit in snuggly. I had to really finesse the cuts because the shoes are fairly skinny up front. So the socks I cut for them will probably be mostly for that exact pair. I cut another pair that fit into both my Chanel ballet flats and Joie animal print loafers. So depending on your shoes you can use a single pair of flat socks for multiple flats.

Initially, I was worried about not having something over my toes but it didn't bother me that the invisible sock was only on the bottom of my foot. This is also handy if your shoes are slightly too tight when you're wearing regular socks, as some of mine are. (Hey, if a pair of shoes is on sale I can deal with a tiny bit of discomfort.) I haven't tried them with heels yet, but I imagine it will be just as nice!

Here are a couple photos showing the difference between normal "no show" socks and Flat Socks. (The back photo is both no-show socks) I despise no-show socks that only have a little bit on the toe because they never stay on and always flop back and forth. So these are the only type of no-show I own, and they obviously don't work for shoes like this or ballet flats. That's where flat socks invisible socks come in!

Sweater: Abercrombie & Fitch

Jeans: FRAME 'Le Skinny de Jeanne' (Shopbop)

Animal Print Loafer: Burberry Prorsum (Net-a-Porter)

Bag: Purple Prada Cahier in Viola (Rebag via Vestiaire Collective)

Sunglasses: Ray Ban 'Emma' (Marshalls) 

Jewelry c/o Aurate

This year is all about simple lifestyle changes for me. Adding more veggie only meals, trying to regularly eat vitamins and moving my body more. Even though I grew up doing gymnastics for 13 years I've never been the best at exercising. Grueling practice, definitely, but running, lifting weights, etc. was not for me. This super portable under desk elliptical from Cubii is going to help me achieve that goal! Last Spring into Summer I was doing indoor and outdoor bike rides and would occasionally go on walks but I definitely need to move more during the work week. 

I've been using my Cubii for about a month and am already noticing changes. Parents or commuters don't hate me, but I have always had trouble getting out of bed before 8:30/9. I used to roll out of bed, go downstairs and start working at 9am. Now I find myself getting up before 8am so I can have my Goli vitamins and get a quick 30 minute "workout" in. I'm not into intense training yet, but will build up to it. For now my goals are at least 2000 strides a day and 30 minutes of pedaling. Some days I'll do more, some days I'll do a higher speed and intensity, but usually I'm at a leisurely bike riding pace at a high resistance.

My friend convinced me and Christian to run the Wine & Dine 5K at Walt Disney World later this year (he's doing the half marathon) so having an under desk elliptical will be great to keep my training going during the day.  Disney's training program for a 5K is 13 weeks, slowly building up your stamina. I feel like I shouldn't need too much training as it's only 3 miles, but if I run the whole way I'll definitely need more endurance. I'm more of a sprinter than a long distance runner. 

I've been easily able to transport my Cubii under desk elliptical to various rooms in the house. If I work in the dining room it fits under the table and if I'm in the living room watching TV I can place it right in front of the couch. It's also quiet so it doesn't disrupt Christian or clients if I'm using it on a work call. It has the option for different users too, so when Christian is in the mood for an under desk elliptical workout he can bring it into his office. I even brought it over to my parent's house once and my family members tried it out on the Guest user. It was quite the hit, ha ha! Even my brother's puppy was curious what all the hype was about.

I have the Cubii JR+ with Bluetooth so I'm able to track my progress in the Cubii app automatically as well as viewing the data in my Health app. It also has an LCD display for immediate info. Having measurable data is always helpful in keeping you to your goals, in my opinion. Christian is trying to get me to buy an Apple Watch now so I can really keep track of all my vitals and exercise - I've been resisting for years because I like small watches, ha ha. Another thing I really enjoy about the Cubii under desk elliptical is you don't have to wear sneakers, most of the time I'm just wearing socks.

Update: After I wrote this post Christian broke me down and I got an Apple Watch 8, haha! I've only had it for a week and a half but it's already motivating me even more. Gotta close those rings every day! I was going to remove the previous paragraph but I think it's funny that I went from "I don't need it" to "Okay, it will keep me more accountable" fairly quickly.

The mobile app has Cubii Studio+ classes so you can follow along different workouts. There are over 300 free classes to choose from for all abilities, needs, and body types. I particularly enjoyed the Mind & Stride and Stretch videos.  You can watch them on your phone or computer. If I did my sessions before work I would airplay to the TV so I could watch on the bigger screen right in front of me.

You can also find monthly Wellness Journii's - each month a pdf calendar with daily activities will be available for download. The app will also show you each day's tasks so you don't forget and will check them off for you if you manually or automatically put your data in the app. My Cubii arrived on February 1st so I was able to participate in (almost) the full month. The activities were such a fun way to get me to keep with my routine. 

February's activities included burning 120 calories, plan & prep 3 meals for the week, pedal for 20 minutes while listening to music and much more! These little changes in activity, and lifestyle reminders, kept workouts from getting boring. I'm optimistic I will continue to use my Cubii for years to come.

The under desk elliptical came almost fully assembled, we just had to add the foot petals and charge it up with the handy USB-C charging cord. The charge lasts quite a while, after my initial charge when it arrived I haven't had to charge it yet (it's been about four and a half weeks.)

*This post was made in partnership with Responsival.  Thank you for supporting brands I feature*